The Classic Case of Over Doing It
I think it’s fair to say that the year of 2016, so far, for DC Comics, hasn’t particularly gone well to their expectations, as far as their cinematic prowess goes. Both Batman V. Superman, which everyone predicted to be one of the big box-office contenders at the start of this year, and Suicide Squad, which presented itself to be a fun cinema-outing from the trailers that it presented itself with, much like how Deadpool was for Marvel, under-performed and both never lived up to the anticipation and fan-projection in being Superhero films that challenged the ever-growing Superhero cinematic dynasty that Marvel are constructing in this day and age. Indeed, while I remain wrongly optimistic that DC will correct themselves with Wonder Woman and Justice League next year, being that these films could too fall down the piping order and be disappointing, It’s a shame to say that Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad both didn’t live up to the ‘hype’ since they both possess ideas that a certain demographic have been pleading to be shown on the big-screen. The idea of having Batman and Superman, both iconic and known Superhero figures to all, on the silver-screen together, was a concept that many would lick with delight. It’s just a pity that Zack Snyder’s image didn’t come into full fruition. However, as disheartening as it is for DC ‘fans’ to be troubled by these latest cinematic adaptations, the shining grace, for many years, has been the iconography and full-frontal depth of Batman/Bruce Wayne. No fictional and much lauded character has had more radical changes and has been interpreted differently than the caped crusader. The Dark Knight’s better successes, on a consistent scale, have been his appearances in animation; ranging from the much loved 90’s, which featured Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill who truly own their given roles, to the more recent Batman animations like Under the Red Hood, which is one of many examples that expanded the universe and law of Batman. How fitting then to see this trend continue with DC’s animated film of Batman: The Killing Joke; an adaptation of one of the most acclaimed and controversial graphic novels ever made that certainly has good and bad tropes…
Being that many of you will have either seen/read The Killing Joke or have never heard of this famed Batman tale at all, I think it’s best if I simply lay down the simple story rather than go into a descriptive detailing of what I usually do in my film reviews. In a nutshell, The Killing Joke presents itself with Batman, as he tries to hunt down the escaped Joker who may or may not be linked with a murder crime. Having escaped, the clown prince of Gotham attacks the Gordon family to prove a diabolical and harrowing point, mirroring his own fall into madness, that “all it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy.”…
Having being gifted ‘The Killing Joke’ comic for Christmas two years ago and eventually being revelled in a grounded and gritty Batman story which goes into depth of the psychological cogs that run through the iconic character of The Joker, this is an animated film that was pulling me into two different directions of thought. While I was interested in seeing how this rather fan fabled Batman story was going to look, with the slight changes of the structure and having back Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to return in playing their known roles, I did also have my reservations since, whenever an adaptation of such proportions comes along, it’s right to question what improvements and subtle adjustments are the animators going to utilise to make this animated film accessible and engaging. In the case of The Killing Joke, it has to be said that Warner Bros. presents us with a mixed bag; a bag that has some good aspects that were standard and expected, and bad tropes that could have either been improved upon or left out entirely. Being that this an animation, a good place to start dissecting this film would be the art style since it never has a cohesive format to excel in. To put it simply, the animation is woefully inconsistent; with moments that look pleasing to eye, oddly whenever the Joker is on screen, and other times when the animation is truly mediocre and sub-par with no stylistic flair and awful rendering of the CG animated excerpts with the droll and unappealing backdrops. From a studio like Warner Bros. that have distributed and produced Batman animations in the past, most noticeably in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, It’s honestly pathetic how simplistic and ordinary the characters and the backgrounds look when you see, in general, how there does seem to be a ‘new wave’ within Western Animation at this moment in time. The visual presence of this film, doesn’t give justice to the original source material and again, I don’t understand how great animated pieces such as with Akira and Ghost in the Shell, both that came out 20 years ago by the way, have such better, beautiful hand-drawn animation than The Killing Joke. Yes, those films may have had bigger budgets to go with. However, for such a much hyped Batman story, why wasn’t there a bigger budget? why didn’t I see a film that blew me away with it’s visuals that it should have had? I guess we’ll never know…
The other and most blaring issue of The Killing Joke, is that of the structuring and total running time as there were a few changes from what we see in the graphic novel. Coincidentally, being that at the moment I am doing reviews of all the Harry Potter films, leading up to the anticipated release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, one of the major things that I have consistently talked about in regards to book/T.V. adaptations, is the film-makers need to change little bits and pieces of the source material to translate properly onto the lens. These changes are implemented in effort to perhaps simplify the production so that the watching experience is relatively accessible, or to simply decline the length of the story. However, if you’re going to change something, whether it’s from a well-known or lesser recognised book or T.V. programme, there does have be some elements of improvement that the original source material never crafted. In the case of The Killing Joke, the obvious change comes in the form of first act of the film, where the first 30 minutes are dedicated to Batgirl and the relationship she has with Batman and one other crime boss, that the two heroes are investigating, who has a fetish for Barbara Gordon. With the film having a total running time of 1hr 16 minutes, it is absurd how much time is dedicated to this 30 minute segment of Batgirl and the downfall of said superhero. Now, I can understand why this 30 minute add-on decision was possibly made, being that they wanted to flesh out the character of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl to not only see the conflicting relationship that Batman and Batgirl have, but also to make us, the audience, feel more attached to her character and to her scenario in which she is emotionally more developed than she is in the novel. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t add anything to the grand scheme that The Killing Joke originally offers. The whole point and emphasis of ‘The Killing Joke’ was this psychological exploration of not only The Joker, and how his past moulded him to be the crazed clown that everyone is familiar with, but also the interlocking connection that Batman and The Joker share with each other; how they are opposing sides that have both felt the effects of that ‘one bad day’. With this said, it just doesn’t make sense having a tedious, overly-long first act with Batgirl that doesn’t really fluctuate the outcome of the story. I mean, it even opens with Batgirl narrating to the audience, “I know this is not the beginning you thought you were going to see”…yeah…your definitely right about that Batgirl! After these 30 minutes, in which it fades into Batman entering a crime-scene followed up shortly after with him entering Arkham Asylum, You’re just left scratching your head as to what purpose this Batgirl segment did. They didn’t need to elongate the depth of the story and the length of the film. Having watched short Japanese animated works done by Makoto Shinkai, who purposefully makes 40-60 minute animations that look visually beautiful and realistic, couldn’t it have been beneficial and more efficient for Warner Bros. to do the same? to just make The Killing Joke a 40-50 minute film that was tight, suspenseful and contained that boasted a much better animation style? I, for one, would have wanted to see a film like this…
The shining grace of this film, which doesn’t completely make The Killing Joke an unwatchable experience, are the voice-performances of both Mark Hamill, who portrays The Joker once again, and Kevin Conroy, embodying the role of Batman. As I mentioned in my previous review of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, while it would be criminal to not put Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger near the to when it comes to the best portrayals of The Joker character, the best and most iconic person to act out this complicated individual is Mark Hamill, considering that he’s been voicing this particular role for 20+ years and never fails to disappoint in providing a Joker performance that can be funny and sinister to see and hear at the same time. Kevin Conroy, as well, is no different since he also, has embraced this role as his own and manages to find a way to improve on his own sombre and iconic hearing voice that he delivers. An honourable mention would be that of Tara Strong. A long serving voice-actress who professionally reprises the role of Batgirl who questionably shouldn’t have had the amount of dedicated screen time that she inevitably had.
Despite director Sam Liu doing a decent job of nicely replicating scenes from the graphic novel to the filmic version and Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy championing their own roles, it’s unfortunate to see that The Killing Joke, along with Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad from this year, doesn’t live up to not only what the main demographic were expecting, but also the quality that the original source materiel had in the first place. With lacklustre animation and changes to the story which don’t add anything to the overall impact of the narrative, The Killing Joke is a poor, bland retelling of a lauded Batman story which clearly should have been something a lot better. With better cohesion of the story structure and animation that complemented that dark nature that this story provides, I expected this to be the case. Regrettably, I was mistaken…
Well… I think that concludes what I have to say about this film. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest film review and I hope you’ve enjoyed the read! If anyone has an opinion on the film or the review itself, please feel free to drop a comment down below. Next week I will be continuing on with my Harry Potter Film Review series with The Order of the Phoenix. Until then, I want to thank you once again for reading what I have put out today, even though it isn’t the typical day I usually post a review!! haha, and I’ll see you all next week!! Have a nice day. Adieu!! 🙂
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte